Combined fluid flow arrangement and engine air cooling system



April 3, 1962 P. THOLEN 3,027,705

COMBINED FLUID FLOW ARRANGEMENT AND ENGINE AIR COOLING SYSTEM Filed Dec. 7, 1959 Hill I 4 blower 1 Fig./

23 cooler co 0! er 2 20pump l7 hydraulic coupling A LE I /8 generator INVENTOP Paul Eo/en nite ta es The present invention relates to air-cooled internal combustion engines and, more specifically, to air-cooled internal combustion engines which furnish their power through a hydraulic transmission and/or hydraulic coupling and which additionally comprise a heat exchanger or cooler for cooling the working medium of the hydraulic transmission and/or the hydraulic coupling.

Hereto-fore it was customary with engines of the above mentioned type, to arrange the heat exchanger for cooling the working medium of the hydraulic transmission and/ or coupling on the suction side of the cooling air furnishing blower and ahead of the latter. This heretofore known arrangement is unfavorable for various reasons. One of these reasons is that the heat exchanger through which the entire cooling air flows in order to obtain a uniform heating of the same, has to be of considerable size in order to reduce its resistance to a minimum and in order to maintain the power requirement for the blower within reasonable limits. In addition thereto, as a rule, a precise guiding of the air between the heat exchanger and the blower was necessary inasmuch as the contour of the heat exchanger usually considerably exceeds that of the blower and is in most instances of a square or rectangular shape. While it is possible to counter the reduction in the delivery of the blower, which may be caused by increased resistance of the heat exchanger, by increasing the blower speed, this could be done only at the expense of an increase in the required power, inasmuch as the power requirement of the blower increases with the third power of the increase in the speed. Furthermore, naturally also the noise development increases.

A further disadvantage of the above mentioned arrangement consists in that due to the heating up of the air entering the blower, the cooling of the internal combustion engine will naturally be affected.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an air-cooled internal combustion engine of the above mentioned type, which will overcome the drawbacks outlined above.

It is another object of this invention to provide an aircooled internal combustion engine which furnishes its power through a hydraulic transmission and/ or hydraulic coupling and is also equipped with a heat exchanger for cooling the working medium for the hydraulic transmission and/or coupling, which will make possible a considerably better exploitation of the cooling air so that the heat exchanger can be reduced in size.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a top view of an arrangement according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a section along the line IIII of FIG. 1.

The arrangement according to the present invention is characterized primarily in that the cooler for the working medium of the hydraulic coupling and/or transmission is located in an air flow branched off from the cooling air delivered by the blower. Such an arrangement of the heat exchanger makes possible a considerably better exploitation of the air as cooling means. The air may heat 3,027,7ll5 Patented Apr. 3, 1962 ran up in the heat exchanger by approximately from 40 to 50 C. above the starting temperature so that the heat exchanger can be considerably reduced in size which in turn will reduce the manufacturing costs for the heat exchanger while the latter will require less space.

With the heretofore known arrangements of the type involved, the optimum concerning the obtained heating of the coo-ling air was approximately from. 8 to 10 C. above the starting temperature. The reduced space requirement of the heat exchanger in conformity with the present invention furthermore improves the placing of the heat exchanger on the internal combustion engine. Thus, for instance, the heat exchanger may be arranged as additional cylinder unit above the fly wheel or it may be subdivided into a plurality of individual heat exchangers respectively arranged at various spaces. This possibility is of particular advantage when using V-engines. By correspondingly designing the blower in such a way that at a displacement of the so-called throttling curve, the delivery pressure will remain substantially constant, it will be made possible with the arrangement according to the present invention that the motor cooling will not be affected by the later installation of a heat exchanger for the cooling of the working medium of the coupling or transmission. A later installation of a heat exchanger will with the increased flow-off section for the cooling air automatically produce an increased delivery of the blower. I

Additional steps, as for instance a displacement of the fuel blocking in the engine or a change in the blower speed, are not required. The blower output will with with the later installation of the heat exchanger increase approximately proportional with the delivered quantity of air per time unit. Furthermore, the noise will not increase.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, the internal com-bustion engine shown thereon and generally desig nated with the letter B, comprises six cylinders 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 arranged in one row and the six cylinders 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 arranged in another row, hoth cylinder groups being arranged with regard to each other in V-form.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 1 furthermore comprises a blower 14 which is drivingly connected to the engine E in any convenient manner. The blower 14 feeds air into the V-chamber 13 formed by the two cylinder rows. In said chamber 13, the air is then split up to a substantially even extent by a deflector 15 which deflects the air to both cylinder groups.

The engine, which is equipped with a fly wheel 16, then drives a current producer or generator 18 through the intervention of a shaft 19 and a hydraulic coupling 17. If desired, the coupling 17 may also be replaced by a hydraulic transmission.

Also drivingly connected to shaft 19 of the internal combustion engine E is a circulating pump 20 for the working medium of the hydraulic coupling. The circulating pump 20 draws in in a continuous manner the working medium, in the present instance oil, through two conduits 21 and 22, coolers 23 and 24 respectively and through conduits 25 and 26. Said coolers 23 and 24 are arranged in series with the cylinders 1 to 6 and 7 to 12 respectively andare passed through by a portion of the air delivered by the blower 14. The circulating pump 20 then feeds the working medium through a conduit 27 thereby returning the working medium to the hydraulic coupling.

It is, of course, to be understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited to the particular construction shown in the drawing but also comprises any modifications within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In combination with an internal combustion engine having air-cooled cylinder means: a blower drivingly connected to said engine for blowing cooling air in the direction toward said cylinder means for cooling the same, hydraulic power conveying means drivingly connected to said engine for conveying driving power from said engine to a machine to be driven, cooler means in hydraulic communication with said hydraulic power conveying means for coolingthe heated up working fluid of said hydraulic power conveying means, said cooler means. being arranged directly adjacent to and serially behind said cylinder means when looking in the delivery direction of said blower, and deflector means for deflecting a portion of the cooling air blown bysaid blower in the direction toward said cylinder means and for guiding said deflected portion of cooling air to said cooler means for cooling the latter, said deflector means leading at a substantially acute angle directly to said cooler means whereby the cooling air is conveyed to said cooler means at a minimum loss in energy.

2. In combination with an air-cooled internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinder groups respectively arranged in rows at an angle with regard to each other so as to form a V-engine: a blower d'rivingly connected to said engine for blowing cooling air into the space confined by said cylinder groups inclined toward each other, deflector means extending into the space confined bysaid cylinder groups for splitting up a portion of the cooling air furnished by said blower into a plurality of cooling air streams and deflecting the same to said cylinder groups, hydraulic power conveying means drivingly connected to said engine for conveying driving power from said engine to a machine to be driven, and a plurality of cooler means respectively arranged in said deflected air streams and in hydraulic communication with said hydraulic power conveying means for cooling heated up Working fluid of said hydraulic power conveying means, said cooler means being arranged directly adjacent to and serially behind said cylinder means when looking in the delivery direction of said blower, said deflector means leading at a substantially acute angle directly to said cooler means whereby the cooling air is conveyed to said cooler means at a minimum loss in energy.

3. An arrangement according to claim 2, in which said internal combustion engine has a first output side and an oppositely located second output side with said blower arranged at said first output side and said cooler means arranged at said second output side, each of said cylinder groups having a plurality of cylinders arranged one after the other, and in which said cooler means is sub-divided into individual hydraulically interconnected cooler units respectively arranged directly behind the last cylinder of each group when looking in the direction of flow of cooling air from said blower toward said cylinders.

4. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which said internal combustion engine has a first output side and an oppositely located second output side, and in which said blower is' arranged at said first output side while said cooler means is arranged at said second output side and ahead of said cylinder means when looking in the direction from said second output side toward said first output side.

References Cited in the file of this patent; UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,696,074 Dolza Dec. 7, 1954 2,736,499 Hazen Feb. 28, 1956 2,807,935' Lapsley Oct. 1, 1957 

